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M. D. COLLINS. 



THE 



COMMON SENSE 



OF 



BIBLE SALVATION 



BY 



M. D. COLLI NS. 



PHILADELPHIA, PA. 

CHRISTIAN STANDARD COMPANY, LTD., 

Publishers and Booksellers, 

921 Arch Street. 






1l5i 



33135 



Copyright, 1899, 
Christian Standard Company, Ltd. 






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INDEX. 

Being and Doing 15 

Can I Be Fully Saved Now? 21 

Common Sense 7 

Growth 35 

How Know It? 25 

Infirm 45 

Introduction 5 

My Seal 61 

Salvation— What? 9 

Seare-crows 53 

Stability 49 

Trial 39 

Verdict 57 

We Ought to Be Holy 17 

Will We Keep Saved? 31 



INTRODUCTION. 



SO far as an introduction may have the nature of an 
apology I am afraid of it. I learned years ago, in 
ray ministry, that to apologize in the performance 
of a religious duty was to run the gauntlet of many 
dangers. The first of these dangers was that of overstating 
the case. So, for a long period, I have skipped apologies. 
The reason I have written this book is the same for which 
I preach a sermon. I felt its truths and their fashion come 
to me in much the same way that my sermonic truths come. 
Having the truth a "fire in my bones," it sought outlet, 
and this book is the gateway. 

The truths of full salvation need "line upon line, pre- 
cept upon precept" of statement, because of false and per- 
verted teaching, and because of the "dullness of ears and 
the hardness of heart of the people." It is a characteristic 
of Holy Spirit times that many shall run to and fro and 
knowledge shall be increased. We rejoice to be one of 
the "runners." May the knowledge of freedom from sin 
be increased until the last laboring child of the kingdom 
shall be "free indeed!" Toward this consummation may 
this little messenger be a herald and contribution! 



COMMOX SEXSE. 

Uncommon sense is much sought for. Common sense 
has few pursuers. We have fallen on times when people 
are after the extraordinary, the unusual. People wish 
to be extraordinarily rich, learned, great, or in some par- 
ticular beyond those about them, while the ordinary 
fields are quite forsaken. Yet the pathway to the perma- 
nently and valuable extraordinary, is to be found by way 
of the ordinary. But this is an apparently dusty old way, 
and seems not very attractive. 

Common sense is the sense we use in every-day affairs, 
about common tilings. Take twelve average men, selected 
at large, just as they come, in the ordinary places 
in life, and submit a question to their unbiased judg- 
ment, and their conclusion would be the verdict of com- 
mon sense. Common sense is the easy, unforced, un- 
strained sense which comes without labored effort. This 
was the reason the "common people" heard Jesus "gladly." 
He spoke in their language. Do you remember His ever 
making a classical quotation in sermon or address? He 
was the simplest and plainest teacher that ever trod the 



8 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

earth. He spoke of young ravens, sparrows, fish, hens and 
chickens, dry grass, green trees, foxes and their holes, lil- 
ies, sand, corn, sheep, pits, ditches, oxen, clay, spittle, 
eating, drinking, purging, vomiting, dogs, hogs, and in- 
numerable common things in life. Surely in the direct 
simplicity of His method, "never man spake like this Man." 
He differs from the Scribes and Pharisees, the profes- 
sional teachers of every age, in that they speak after the 
schools. He speaks after nature. God made man just 
right at the beginning; sin denaturalized him; salvation 
gets him as near back to these normal orders as it is pos- 
sible to restore him. Salvation, full and free, is the fric- 
tionless, easy, happy, harmonious life. God gives it to 
all. Nay, He is offering it "without money or price." 
Common sense says accept it, everybody. 



II. 

SALVATION— WHAT ? 

Salvation is deliverance from danger. The baby fell 
into the rain barrel, and would have drowned, but mother 
saw the little feet following the rest of the baby into the 
depths. With a scream she ran and rescued it. She 
saved it from death by drowning. Saved it from present 
peril, and future death. Is the baby any dearer now, as it 
lies in mother's arms, fondled and kissed, with oft repeated 
expressions of affection, than it was before the adventure 
in the rain barrel? No, but this occasion has served to 
show the affection which lay in the mother's heart all the 
while. 

Sin is a present danger, and sure death to the soul, 
in the end. Salvation is deliverance from sin; the danger 
and death-dealing assault upon the soul. It is not get- 
ting to heaven; that is where saved people go at last. It 
is not joining the church; that is a very natural and likely 
thing for saved people to do It is not faith in the Bible 
or even faith in Jesus; that is what people do to be saved; 
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be 
saved." — xicts 16: 31. It is not something we do; it is 



10 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

something done for and in us. The condition is "Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ." The salvation is the act of 
God by which we are delivered from that which endangers 
our case. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall 
save His people from their sins." 

Salvation is present, continuous, and final. Present 
salvation is that which a sinner may have now on the con- 
dition of "faith on the Lord Jesus Christ." 

Continuous salvation is this rescue extended through a 
period of time and a succession of events. How may pres- 
ent salvation be continued? God has covenanted to 
continue to save us upon the same conditions upon which 
He rescued us in the first place. "As ye have therefore 
received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him." — Col. 
2: 6. When I instantly and fully obeyed my conviction 
of what I ought to do, then He immediately saved me. 
And so I shall keep saved by instant and full obedience to 
the light of conviction I have. In what does present sal- 
vation from sin consist? In deliverance from the guilt 
of sin I saw and felt was upon me. "He that believeth 
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed 
on the name of the only begotten Son of God." — John 3: 
18. In deliverance from the dominion of sin: "For sin shall 
not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law, 



BIBLE SALVATION. 11 

but under grace/' — Eom. 6: 14. From the power of sin 
by legal force to sell us out of our rights in the family of 
God. Our child rights in the family of God are by sin 
legally forfeited, and we inherit only when we serve. If 
we sin we are children of the devil, and can inherit only 
on that line. But salvation cancels the mortgage of sin, 
restores the lost patrimony, and puts us on the line of our 
inheritance again. "If sons, then heirs." We are now on 
the line to get heaven by family right. Most people are 
trying to secure heaven as a reward of good behavior. We 
get capacity by doing right; but we get heaven by in- 
heritance. It is the love gift of the Father to the family. 
We do right because we are right, and being born from 
above we become citizens of the heavenly country by "birth 
from above." 

If our pedigree is clear we shall have heaven by the 
will of God. Will a regenerate soul go to heaven? Yea, 
verily, there is no other outcome for him. What need then 
of entire sanctification? The need lies in the fact of the 
nature of heaven. It is holy, and only holy ones are at 
home in holy places. Eegeneration makes heaven possible. 
Entire sanctification makes us "meet to be partakers of the 
inheritance of the saints in light." — Col. 1: 12. There is 
no question but that we must be holy before we enter 



12 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

heaven, for "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." 
There is no question but that every child of God is born to 
a perfectly holy life. He has the pledge and prophecy of 
this in what is done for him at every stage of the salvation 
process. What is done is perfectly done, so far as it goes. 
He is perfectly regenerated; no needed retouching of this 
work of the Holy Spirit. He is perfectly justified from all 
his past sins, as completely as though he had never sinned. 
He is perfectly adopted; not taken into the back kitchen, 
promoted after a time of good behavior to the sitting- 
room, and then permitted to enter the parlor. But at 
once and for all he is taken into the full fellowship of the 
Fathers adopting love. 

But many a child is born to an inheritance he never 
enters fully upon or enjoys. It is said hundreds of thou- 
sands of pounds lie in the Bank of Scotland awaiting 
claimants by rightful heirs; many of whom, no doubt, 
have perished in want in distant lands, not because they 
did not have rights to the future, good and true, but be- 
cause they did not do that which was needful in order to 
become "partakers" of their legacy. 

What, then, is full salvation? It is deliverance from 
"sin which dwelleth in me" — the "carnal mind" — the "old 
man." Eeason as we may; adopt what theory of sin we 



BIBLE SALVATION. 13 

choose, every regenerate soul finds out subsequent to his 
conversion that there is something in him which con- 
stantly, and at times violently, endangers his standing in 
the life produced in him by regeneration. Something in 
him, not temptation from Satan or the world, not 
merely natural appetites, but something in the appetite 
which does not belong to normal appetite, which is liable 
and tends to flash up like powder and blow away position 
gained by days of labor; or like a wild torrent tends to 
bear away before its wild tide the whole structure of life 
born in them by the Holy Spirit. Call this what we may, 
or let it be nameless, it is the common experience of the 
best cases of converted men and women that they seriously 
encounter this oppressing force and long and pray for de- 
liverance from it. Here lies the issue. Can we by the 
same process of faith on the Lord Jesus Christ be de- 
livered from this inner somewhat that gives us so much 
trouble? The Bible says we can — and this is what we 
mean by full salvation. Salvation meeting the last ele- 
ment of our sin difficulty. 

What is final salvation? It is the obteinment of the 
remotest result of the Calvary purchase. What yet re- 
mains after present, continuous, and full salvation? The 
body is yet to be saved from corruption, ignominy and 



14 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

death. The mind is yet to be saved from infirmity, im- 
perfection, and deception. When the body is raised in 
"incorruption" and made like unto "Christ glorious body;" 
and when the mind is delivered from all the incubus and 
paralysis sin has brought on us, then shall we have the full 
fruition of final salvation. A glorious body, a glorified 
mind, and a holy soul reunited forever shall enter on the 
reaping of the glorious harvest of eternal life. 



III. 

BEING AND DOING. 

The Bible and common sense go together. The sacred 
book and prayerful self-examination discover that the diffi- 
culty with our lives is a twofold one. We do wrong, and 
we are wrong. The clock cannot keep correct time until 
it be right within. When right within, the outside will 
be true to the movements of the sun. "Make the tre« 
good and the fruit will be good also," said the Master 
Teacher. We have a history of wrong doing. "We have 
sinned and come short of the glory of God." This his- 
tory and fact can be remedied. How? Pardon for the 
guilt. Eegeneration, turning the life from, to God; justifi- 
cation, giving a new relation to law. 

But after this all agree; Bible, theologian, and experi- 
mentalist, that while the regenerated soul does right if 
he maintains his new relation, and as long as he maintains 
that relation, yet he does so against an internal bias that 
shows him conclusively that he is yet internally wrong. 
The tresd and tendency is to go wrong. Held under, so 
submerged at periods as to be not at all recognised, as 
the tide of the happy, joyous, new life sweeps on, yet again 

and again appearing and contesting that new life at every 

15 



16 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

point of its movement. All agree as to the facts. Great 
the diversity of remedies or application of remedy and 
hope of recovery. But all agree as to the internecine war. 
The rebellion is conquered, but reconstruction is not yet 
complete. Ku Klux yet are in the country. 

All agree that depravity survives regeneration, and is 
found as a live factor in truly regenerated lives. 
"AH," we said, all the authorities, all the theology, all 
the authoritative statements of the theologies agree. 
Here and there are individuals who disagree, but the con- 
census of the church militant is a unit, and has been for 
eighteen centuries. Theories of remedy are varied, but 
the great mass, those who have tried it by the Bible way, 
almost in the one voice cry out that by the same simple 
way by which the cloud of guilt was dissipated may the 
stain of inner pollution be washed clean away. 

Those who have had the clearest experience of the first 
work are they who also have the most transparent experi- 
ence of the second. The Bible promises, and repeated ex- 
periences demonstrate, that just as we are justified by faith 
from the guilt of past sin, so by the same kind of faith in 
the same atoning merit of the blood of Jesus, we may be 
delivered from the conscious inbeing of sinward trend in 
our moral natures. 



IV. 

WE OUGHT TO BE HOLY. 

God commands us to be holy. "Be ye holy, for I, the 
Lord your God am holy." — Lev. 19: 1, 2. And that this 
command applies to the fullest definition of holiness, un- 
der the dispensation of the Holy Ghost, is manifest from 
the fact that Peter reiterates it in his latest, and one of 
the latest writings of the New Testament. This command 
is not to "aim at holiness" as a distant goal, no more than 
the command "thou shalt not steal" is a command to aim 
at honesty as a final achievement. All agree that holiness 
is the ought-to-be of moral status for all men. This being 
true, and God having provided for its immediate obtain- 
ment by faith in the all-potent atoning blood, holiness, 
becomes in the creature true loyalty to God. God is my 
creator, lawgiver, judge. I am His by creation, providen- 
tial preservation and redemption, and I ought be His 
by glad, free, and full consecration of every living power 
to God. He commands me to "be holy:" I ought to obey. 
Holiness is loyal obedience on the part of the subject. 
But not this alone. The divine side of this transaction is 

that which makes holy. As soon as the loyal subjects of 

17 



18 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

my wholly redeemed nature return to God in true, entire 
consecration, then the Holy Ghost comes and occupies 
His chosen residence ("Ye are the temple of the living 
God"), and that act of occupation by the Inabiding Spirit 
coming and filling the soul is that which sanctifies and 
makes holy. 

Holiness is loyalty to my neighbor. I cannot "love God 

whom I have not seen, and hate man whom I have seen." 

The two relations are "like." I must "love God with all 

my heart and my neighbor as myself." Holiness is loyalty 

to myself. I was made for God. "The chief end of man 

is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." I cannot do 

this unless I be holy. God is holy, and unless I am in 

harmony with Him I shall be forever striking the bucklers 

of the Almighty. As truly as a locomotive is made for a 

track, with a certain kind of rail, just so many feet and 

inches apart, so I was made for God. I fit nowhere else; 

I run smoothly no other place in life. It is not a question 

of theologies, theories, or this or that; it is a constitutional 

question. Being made for God, I am, by the construction 

of my nature, unfitted forever for any other place in the 

universe. There is nothing else like God in this universe, 

so there is nothing else to fit to but God. Garfield said: 

"If a man will get so that he can sleep well with himself, 



BIBLE SALVATION. 19 

then there is nothing in the universe can disturb his 
slumbers." But you can never "sleep well with yourself" 
until every faculty responds in harmony with God. 



CAN I BE FULLY SAVED NOW? 

I can be what I ought be, or God demands what I 
cannot fulfil. But He is just, and does not anywhere re- 
quire of me what He has not given me power to do or be. 
He commands me to repent of sin and return to the path- 
way of obedience, and by His grace always guaranteed 
the honest soul, I can. He commands me to "love Him 
with all my heart and mind, and soul, and my neighbor 
as myself," and by the same grace of God I can, for He 
has promised "to circumcise my heart, and the heart of 
my seed to love Him with all my heart," etc. If grace can 
save at all, it can fully save. If it can deliver me from any 
of my sins, it can deliver me from all my sins. Sin is all 
of one fibre, and that which can eradicate one part of it 
can take out all. Also that which is true of all sin at any 
time is true now. If ever the grace of God will be effective 
to meet the whole case of my need, it is equal to meet it 
now. Grace, or the faith which renders that grace avail- 
able, will never be any more efficient than it is now. 
There is no faith but now faith, and there is no promise 

of grace but now. This, then, is not a question for the 

21 



22 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

metaphysicians or theologians merely, but it is a question 
of fact. "Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy 
Ghost," whether any one can explain it or give us the true 
philosophy or not. The gospel is a record of fact leaving 
the ages to give us the philosophy. If my philosophy 
must measure my facts, or experiences, my measure of sal- 
vation is small indeed. 

The testimony of the whitest souls in the Christian 
ranks, through the ages, is no mean factor in the settle- 
ment of this question of the measure of salvation faith 
may compass now; as Bishop Janes said, "What are we to 
do with the testimony of Stephen Olin, Bishop Hed- 
ding, Wilbur Fisk, and thousands of others who give as 
clear and unequivocal testimony to holiness as a second 
distinctive experience wrought in the soul subsequently 
to regeneration?" And this query will not down at the 
philosophizing of every or any man. The list might be 
easily indefinitely extended from John Wesley and Hester 
Ann Rogers to John S. Inskip and Phoebe Palmer. These 
give as intelligent a testimony, and as beautiful a life, at- 
testing regeneration, as any in the whole court of Christian 
hosts. They are as competent as any to give testimony 
on the spiritual life, and there is a marvelous unanimity 
in their testimony. If testimony is good for anything, 



BIBLE SALVATION. 23 

theirs counts with its full weight for holiness as a second 
definite work of grace in the soul. He is a brave man 
indeed who can stand and gaze along the line of this col- 
umn made white in the blood of the lamb, and declare 
"They no doubt sincerely thought they were delivered 
from the carnal mind, but they were mistaken." 

Here and there men and women have been mistaken on 
vital matters, but sooner or later the mistake is discovered 
and corrected. But here is a mistake, if error it be, that 
has continued in unbroken line and increasing numbers 
for centuries, and men and women embrace it as earnestly 
now as ever in the years. I know of no more competent 
class to answer my query, and from none comes a more 
unequivocal answer than this blood-washed company who, 
when I ask them, Can the soul be delivered from the carnal 
mind, through the blood of Jesus, applied to the believing 
soul by the Holy Ghost? responded with a voice that 
thunders down the ages, "Aye and Amen." 



VI. 

HOW KNOW IT? 

Just as I know any other fact of experience. I knew 
I was a guilty soul, when I was in rebellion against God. 
I knew it, not by reason, but even in spite of and against 
my strongest protest of reasoning. I knew it when the 
burden was lifted and gone. I knew that the same I who 
had long ago gone as a cart beneath its sheaves was now 
disburdened and ran, yea, flew with alacrity and delight 
along the way I had so long shunned and avoided as a 
shady and sombre way. I knew it also by the direct wit- 
ness of the Spirit that I now stood in filial and loving favor 
with God as His reconciled child. And the further and 
subsequent experience was just as clear to my conscious- 
ness, and as satisfactorily attested by the Holy Ghost, as 
a child of God, walking in the favor and fellowship of my 
heavenly Father, I knew there was something in my in- 
terior life that antagonized the regenerative life received 
at my pardoning. This something, which at first I was 
surprised to find, then made me solicitous to know as to 
its nature and right to be there. I found it wonderfully 

described in the Bible under such terms as "sin which 

25 



26 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

dwelleth in me" — the "carnal mind enmity against God" 
—the "old man"— "old Adam," etc. This I found as 
I introspected my soul under the best light, in the most 
secluded hour of my soul opening to God. At times how 
burning the consciousness! How intense the struggle to 
down it! To persuade myself it was a temporary disorder! 
But the more I opened my whole being to God and prayed 
for light, the more clearly I saw there was a deep-seated, 
hereditary something that warred against the Spirit in 
my soul and kept up internecine discord. Deny that I 
am a competent witness, but too deeply written in my 
soul is the memory of those days of inner self discovery 
under the light of the Holy Spirit to be overthrown or 
dissipated by any system or process of philosophizing. 
Then there came a crisis. I became desperate. I felt 
there ought to be help for an honest soul. I sought it. 
I cried to God for it. I found, at last, certain passages 
of Holy Writ marvelousiy expressing my soul hunger as 
of some one who had gone over this same road before me. 
"Create in me a clean heart, God" — "Wash me and I 
shall be whiter than snow" — "I am undone, I am a man 
of unclean lips." Then I cried in the face of heaven. 
My cry was heard. My floundering, desperate soul caught 
hold of this plank: "If we walk in the light as He is in 



BIBLE SALVATION. 27 

the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the 
blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
I clasped it with both hands, and it supported me. In a 
few hours it bore into a quiet harbor, where my soul has 
been marvelously resting all the years since. Am I mis- 
taken? Some say "I am, and that while the uplift is good 
for the soul, and the epoch in soul progress one to be de- 
sired, but that the soul was not really delivered from the 
carnal mind." This can only be by stages, and long con- 
tests, and steady growth, by experience with the subtle foe, 
and then along the drive somewhere I may at last be de- 
livered. Well, if the power to deliver is the blood of Jesus, 
I will still hold this as efficient and sufficient now as ever it 
will be. As dear old John Wesley reasoned "If by faith, why 
not now?" But to the facts again. Let us give allowance 
for some souls that are rather given to over-enthusiasm, 
and may have been deluded; but what shall we do with 
the great numbers of intelligent, clear-brained, honest- 
hearted souls like Hedding, Hamlin, Asbury, Abbott, Fos- 
ter and Joyce, and a thousand others who come rushing 
in at memory's gate, all gladly testifying to the one thing. 
Shall we say these are all mistaken? These did not know 
what they were talking about? Were Thomas M. Eddy 
and Bishop Janes mistaken? Are they the class of men 



28 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

who take up a hurried conclusion, and then find they have 
claimed too much? Was Dr. Keen, on his dying bed, 
when he declared "the gospel of full salvation he had 
preached to others was all and more than he had declared 
it to be," but laboring under a mistaken idea as to his 
spiritual condition before God? 

It is said "some have supposed they were delivered from 
depravity who later on found they were mistaken, and the 
carnal mind again asserted itself." Well, other "some" 
have supposed they were delivered from the "old man" 
of sin, and in the face of testings severe, and after years 
of deliberation, still declare God has kept them in sweet 
and steady victory so that they have not had any uprising 
of the carnal heart antagonizing the spirit of God in them. 
So that over against the "some" who found they had been 
mistaken we put the other and larger "some" who still de- 
clare they were not mistaken. This large and growing 
company find such Scriptures as this very spontaneously, 
and fully express their now state before God and men: 
"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him 
that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth 
we should not serve sin." — Eom. 6: 6. It is too late in 
the day to philosophize away so rugged and fire-tested ex- 
periences as this full salvation brigade present. 



EIBLE SALVATION. 29 

It has been asserted that "the Holy Spirit is nowhere 
promised in the Scripture as the witness to any state but 
that of adoption." We grant this so far as exact and spe- 
cific language is concerned. But do we believe nothing 
taught in the Bible save that which is specifically and 
definitely named in so many words? Surely such a posi- 
tion will not be claimed by a Bible teacher. The Bible 
does teach that, "Now we have received, not the Spirit of 
the world, but the Spirit which is of God: that we might 
know the things that are freely given to us of God." — 
I Cor. 2: 12. If full salvation is the free gift of God out 
of the virtue of the atonement of Christ, then it is clearly 
within the purview of this passage, and certified to the 
soul by the Holy Spirit of God. 

"Hereby know we that we dwell in Him and He in us, 
because He hath given us of His spirit." — I John 4: 13. 
This refers to the promise made by Christ before His de- 
parture, of the "promise of the Father," which came on 
Pentecost "purifying their hearts by faith." From that 
day one characteristic of holiness has been the fact that 
the Triune God abides in a purified soul. The perma- 
nence of His presence is distinctive from the earlier ex- 
periences of the salvation life, and not the permanence of 
maturity, but a permanence that began with the sanctifi- 



30 THE COMMON" SENSE OF 

cation of the soul as by a sudden introduction into a state 
of permanent indwelling of the Comforter. 



VII. 

WILL WE KEEP SAVED? 

Keeping fully saved is no more difficult or uncertain 
than keeping saved at all. If we can keep ourselves in the 
favor of God in pardon, we can in entire sanctification. 
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and 
to present you faultless before the presence of His glory 
with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, 
be glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and 
forever. Amen." — Jude 24: 25. He is as much disposed 
to "keep us" as He is "able" to do it. The great question 
is not so much what we can do in the way of diligent and 
vigilant watchfulness as it is a query as to whether we shall 
maintain our faith-unity with the Omnipotent Keeper. 

"If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ 
his Son cleanseth us from all sin." Can we do this? 
Well, the probabilities of success are greater with a perfect 
faith than with an imperfect one. The chances are mani- 
fold more when depravity is eliminated than when this 
subtle quicksand still underlies the soul. True, there is 

still the great enemy of the soul — Satan — who can still 

31 



32 THE COMMON SENSE OE 

assail the soul, and will likely dog ns to the end. True, 
natural appetites, in a weakened body, and impaired mind 
still are to be considered. These must be "kept under" 
and brought into subjection. True, free agency still 
abides, and we can sin, as a moral probability, so long as 
we are probationers; but thanks be unto God there is no 
power can compel us to sin. So that on every hand we 
shall still need 

"To watch and fight and pray 
The battle ne'er give o'er; 
The work of faith will not be done 
'Till we obtain the crown." 

All the helps to growth in grace, in wisdom, power, love, 
will now come to the soul who would "be faithful unto 
death." "The righteous also shall hold on his way, and he 
thatihath clean hands shall be stronger and stronger." — Job 
17: 9. The soul, in a life of holiness, will find faith in 
Jesus' power and willingness to save, becoming the fine 
art of life. The query is turned from "What can I do?" 
to "What can I trust Jesus to do for me?" 

Falls there may be, "but if any man sin we have an 
advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous." 
That we may fall at any point this side the "pearly gate," 
does not prove that the holiness confessor did not have 



BIBLE SALVATION. 33 

what he supposed any more than falling from regeneration 
proves that the subject was not "born from above." The 
ability and disposition of God, the all-sufficient, is guaran- 
teed to keep those who "look unto Jesus;" and many are 
so kept, which establishes the rule, which is further 
confirmed by the exception. 



VIII. 

GROWTH. 

The laws of growth as related to the permanency of 
Christian life are too little apprehended and conformed to. 
Into the state of grace we are introduced by the act of 
God. Regeneration and entire sanctification are produced 
by the act of God. The Methodist catechism clearly puts 
the Bible teaching when it says: "Sanctification is the act 
of divine grace whereby we are made holy." "I am the 
Lord that doth sanctify you."— Ex. 31: 13. "The very 
God of peace sanctify you wholly." — I Thess. 5: 23. In- 
sensate things as "pots and vessels" are sanctified in the 
elementary sense of being set apart for holy uses, but when 
the term is applied to free agents and immortal souls, it 
carries the much larger and wider idea of the incoming 
of God into the consecrated vessel, and by this incoming, 
approving and appropriating act, rendering the intelligent 
vessel a "partaker of the divine nature," and so be not only 
relatively holy as a thing, but really holy as an intelli- 
gent receiver of the divine sanctity. Get this Bible idea 
clearly in mind, and you are thus ready to consider the 

relation and office of growth. The graces of the spirit are 

35 



36 THE COMMON SENSE Of 

divine bestowments. Nor do they grow. We grow in 
them. We do not make the graces larger, but we become 
larger in capacity for them, and flexibility in their move- 
ment. "We are God's husbandry/' literally, "God's farm/' 
He furnishes seed and sunshine, and we grow, and pro- 
duce His crop. He breaks up the fallow ground of our 
hearts, seeds us down with the clover of His love, and we 
produce "fruit unto holiness." 

We grow in power. Power is of God. He is the 
source; we the media. We grow in ability to use and 
manifest power. He does not make us reservoirs, but 
wires of communication. We cannot store power, but 
grow in knowledge of our resource, and habit of depend- 
ence upon its availability. We grow in harmonious action 
and smoothness of movement. At first the wheels and 
pinions of our spiritual machinery are rough, and do not 
move smoothly and evenly. But time and action will give 
grace and facility to our movement. All the graces are 
given full-fledged, but we have to learn how to use them, 
like a boy who for a Christmas present has received a box 
of toy carpenter tools. They are all then bright, new, 
and perfect; but of many of them he has but small idea 
how to use them for result. Their possession is his, and 
he is happy in that fact; but what he can do with them, 



BIBLE SALYATtOtf. 87 

and how many excellent things his busy hands and 
thoughtful brain can fashion with them, he has yet to 
learn. 

In this sense we are to "add to our faith virtue, and to 
virtue knowledge," etc., not in a mathematical way, adding 
one at a time, these graces, until we at length secure a 
full complement. But this word "add" in II Pet. 1: 5, 
has the meaning of facility in using. Here growth has 
an important office in developing facility in using the 
graces. They are not alone given for ornament, but for 
practical and vital use. So we are to learn to use faith 
so as to increase its own appropriating power, and to en- 
large its compass. The dexterous pianist learns to reach, 
by constant application, nearly twice as far with his fingers 
on the keys, as he could at his first effort. We are to learn 
how to use courage. That fearlessness the liberated soul 
feels who bounds out from under the load of carnality, 
which has made his spiritual progress so slow-paced 
hitherto; he must learn to use it so that it will not seem 
self-sufficiency or brassiness, and so hinder instead of help 
usefulness. 

So we merely indicate the field of growth. But a word 
more as to growth from another point of observation. We 
must grow. We can maintain no state of grace attained 



38 THE COMMON" SENSE OE 

but by going on beyond it. This is the law of spiritual 
progress: "Unto him that hath, unto him shall be given," 
or he that uses what he has as a wise investor shall have 
more. "But from him that hath not" — does not use — 
"shall be taken that which he hath." 

Thus we see that instead of entire sanetification, or any 
other state of grace, being a point at which we can receive 
no more, it is the point of true spiritual acquisitiveness; 
at which we can and do receive in a ratio hitherto never 
attained. A finite soul will never cease to grow. The 
unpicturable pattern of divine excellence will ever be be- 
fore it, toward which it will be reaching out forever and 
ever. Let us heed this ever constant need of the soul, 
conformity to the laws of growth. 

Growing things are tender, as you see in the tendrils of 
a live and luxuriating grape vine. So the soul, under 
grace, will grow in tender appreciation and apprehension 
of the nature and mind of Christ and Christly things. 
Growing trees reach deeper and higher — grow up and 
down. So we must be "rooted and grounded in love," and 
grow up into Christ, the living head in all things. 



IX. 
TKIAL. 

The trial to which the Christian is subject is twofold. 
First, from assault by Satan who solicits to evil. From 
the Lord, directly or permissively, for the sake of develop- 
ing temper or flexibility, and for the sake of usefulness. 
Solicitation to evil is always from either a depraved heart 
or from Satan. When depravity is removed by the cleans- 
ing blood, then solicitation to evil is always external, from 
the devil or his agencies. From the latter we cannot be 
freed so long as we are probationers. The very name im- 
plies trial with possibility of yielding to fall. 

Some have imagined that when entirely sanctified, they 
could not or would not be solicited to evil any more. No 
greater mistake could be made. The devil wastes no am- 
munition, and so but superficially assaults the half slum- 
bering Christian. But you go over fully to God, and get 
filled with the Holy Ghost, and so become a real live, ag- 
gressive factor in the kingdom of Christ, and the devil 
will awake and assault you with a violence that will sur- 
prise you. He never massed his forces and taxed his re- 

39 



40 TfiE COMMON SENSE 0# 

sources so to accomplish his ends, as when Jesus invaded 
what He claimed as His territory, this earth. 

Several things may be learned to our profit from the 
scene in the wilderness immediately following His baptism. 
The record says "being full of the Holy Ghost, He was 
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of 
the devil."- — Luke 4:1. It is when we are "filled with the 
Holy Ghost'' that our fiercest contest with Satan comes. 
All previous contests with him have been but skirmishes. 
Satan fell from purity, and like all other backsliders he is 
chronically doubtful of the stability of any soul. From 
the backslider you- have that "every man has his price." 
Though very crafty and ingenious, yet he is still very 
ignorant of spiritual resources. Though mighty he is 
not almighty. 

The first assault Satan made on the second Adam was 
the old one by which he trapped the first Adam — by appeal 
to appetite. A pious soul who has been delivered from 
the carnal mind, or the sinward bent in appetite, may yet 
fall as Adam did through allowing appetite to lead beyond 
the divinely fixed boundary thereof. 

Here is where some fail in a proper definition of de- 
pravity. They do not discriminate between a legitimate 
appetite which may be normal and good in itself, and that 



BIBLE SALVATION. 4.1 

inherited perversion in appetite which causes it to tend 
to sin, and that continually. So Satan appealed to hunger 
in Jesus. Adam the first fell by misbelief of God. Jesus 
stood by the obedience of faith, which is faith of soul. 
Secondly, Satan appealed to the desire for conquest of the 
world. Jesus came to conquer the world to his sceptre, 
but by a method new to the universe by "losing his life" 
instead of "saving it." He penetrated the subtle assault 
of Satan at this point by the plain command, "Thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." So simple loyalty to God 
will penetrate the mists of many a dark assault of the devil, 
and open a plain and safe path for our feet. 

Lastly, Satan assailed the desire for supernatural dis- 
play-power and the show of it. 

This desire for spiritual ornateness, for show of power, 
marvels, has caught many a soul and deflected it from 
the plain, safe path of holy living into the very showy one 
of marvels and peculiar divine demonstrations, until the 
"transformed angels of light" tripped their feet and they 
fell into the snare of the devil. 

On the whole, we learn that Jesus' trial from Satan was 
just what a holy soul is subjected to. "He was tempted in 
all points as we are, yet without sin." That is, Christ hav- 
ing no depravity in His nature could not be tempted "with 



42 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

His own lust," and so there is left only the field of tempta- 
tion to which we are yet open when our depravity has been 
removed. We see in Jesus the possibility with no prob- 
ability of sinning. He could have given way, or there is 
no meaning to the trial. But that He would give way 
there was no probability. That mother with the babe in 
her arms which she loves more than her own life, can de- 
stroy it by her own hands. She has muscle strong enough 
to choke it to death; it is a physical possibility; but so 
long as mother-love reigns in her heart it is as safe in her 
hands as in the hands of an angel. So "he that abideth 
in Him sinneth not." He can sin so far as the volitional 
possibility is concerned, but so long as he loves God with 
all his heart, he will not. Jesus brought no power to bear 
to overcome Satan that we may not bring to bear. So 
we shall need yet to pray, "Lead us not into temptation 
and deliver us from the Evil One." 

There remains yet the second kind of trial to be con- 
sidered, viz., trial for the sake of improvement. In the 
sense of solicitation to evil, "God cannot be tempted, nor 
tempteth He any man." His trial of us, whether direct, 
or permissively, is always for our profit. 

Refinement is after purification. Refinement is first to 
increase our value to the kingdom of God. Take a piece 



BIBLE SALVATION. 43 

of crude iron, and by various processes of passing it 
through the fire it may be advanced from a value of ten 
cents a pound as crude iron, to hundreds of dollars a pound 
when by refinement it has been fitted for hair springs for 
watches. So while suffering has no sanctifying power, 
only Jesus' blood can do that, yet when the soul has been 
sanctified then the Masterhand can and does so manipu- 
late the fires of trial that the soul comes thence seven 
times tried and increased in value in a ratio beyond our 
computation. 

Again, trial of this sort is for usefulness. Take a piece 
of steel and forge a Damascus sword blade. Bring it to 
the exact size, shape, sharpness and polish, but it is yet 
good for nothing as a sword until it be tempered. Until 
then, if you strike an anakim, it will bend and likely 
stick the striker. But let the master put it in the fire un- 
til hot enough, and then suddenly transfer it to the water 
or oil until the proper tinge of color mark its whole 
length, and now you may strike w T ith a force that bends 
your weapon double, but it springs back to its normal 
straightness and is ready in a moment for another stroke. 
You may put heavy weight upon it, and bend it down, but 
as soon as the weight is removed so soon will it straighten 
again. Now it is tempered. Now it is ready for service. 



44 tMfe COMMON" SENSE- 0* 

Now it is useful to the user. So, soul of mine, stand tliotl 
quiet in the fires until the Master shall have tempered 
and refined thee, that thou may'st be both useful and valu- 
able to the King in His work. 



INFIKM. 

t 

Salvation is limited in us, here and now, by infirmities 
from which we may not be delivered until we reach the 
full fruition of the "glorious liberty of the sons of God" 
in the resurrection state. Infirmities are of two classes: 
physical and intellectual. The first Paul speaks of in 
Galatians 4: 13, "Ye know how through infirmity of the 
flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first;" and the 
second in II Corinthians 4: 8, "We are troubled on every 
side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in de- 
spair." 

Yet he declares in the 10th verse that he "'always bears 
about the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of 
Jesus might be manifest in our body." Infirmities exist 
in the region of sensibilities and intellect, never in the will 
or affections. They are failures to keep the perfect law of 
obedience given to Adam in the garden of Eden. They 
are an involuntary outflow from an imperfect moral or- 
ganism. They have their ground in our physical nature, 
and are aggravated by our intellectual deficiencies. They 

entail regret and humiliation, but in properly instructed 

45 



46 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

souls do not interrupt communion with God. Hidden 
from ourselves they are covered by the blood of Jesus. 
They are without remedy so long as we are in the body. 
We must learn to discriminate between infirmities and sins, 
which we may readily do by this simple line: Infirmities 
are involuntary, exist against our will. Sins are volun- 
tary, and can originate only in the choice of our free will. 
Some earnest souls are much tormented by the "accuser of 
the brethren" with the idea that they have sinned without 
knowing it, or intending it. A wrong thing may have 
been done without our knowing it to be wrong — a thing we 
could not repeat without guilt; but if we did not know 
it to be wrong and did not intend to go counter to the 
Divine will, we have incurred no guilt. The act as a "fall- 
ing short of the mark" has a certain element of sin in it, 
and needs the atonement, which, as the act of a child be- 
fore the period of accountability, it has, and the act is 
covered by the atoning blood, and so gathers no guilt upon 
the soul. 

Mistake in opinion or practice is not sin of such nature 
as to incur guilt. Yet every mistake is a violation of the 
perfect law of God, and this law cannot be broken without 
final recognition by God's government. Hence the mis- 
take must be covered by the atonement, or it will expose 



BIBLE SALVATION. 47 

the soul to death. In Numbers 15: 27, 28, we find pro- 
vision made under Mosaism for meeting this case. And 
the Gospel has equal provision to meet the "sin of ig- 
norance." Hence the presumption of those who imagine 
they do not need to pray, "Forgive us our trespasses." We 
constantly need the virtue of Christ's merit to cover our 
unintended lapses from the perfect law, and for failures 
from infirmities of flesh and spirit. The point then to 
be gained by the conscientious and devout follower of 
Jesus is to maintain an humble and watchful spirit with 
regard to infirmities, being careful not to repeat the mis- 
takes which have been discovered to be such: and, on the 
other hand, not be driven from our moorings of a steady 
faith in the all-prevailing power of the blood, or shrink 
from our confident place in the "love of the Father." The 
enemy of our souls says to those who have made mistakes, 
"Now stay away from Jesus until you have shown ample 
sorrow and humility for the wrong," but Jesus says, "For 
we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with 
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted 
like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come 
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, 
and find grace to help in time of need." — Heb. 4: 15, 16. 
Thus while purity of heart does not give exemption 



48 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

from errors of judgment or mistakes in practice, it will 
give us the best use of what brain-power we have. 



XI. 
STABILITY. 

The divine intention and normal state of salvation is 
that of establishment in the life of faith on the Son of 
God. "The Lord shall establish them an holy people unto 
Himself, as He has sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the 
commandments of the Lord thy God, and walk in His 
ways." — Deut. 28: 9. Obedience and progressive harmony 
with the Holy Spirit thus are the price and pathway of 
stability. Yet many persons get into the life of full sal- 
vation and drift out. What are prominent causes of this 
lapse from the higher states of grace? 

1. A want of definite, clear Scriptural experience of per- 
fect love. Many have not been clear in the first stages of 
Christian life, and when aroused upon the matter of entire 
sanctification they begin to seek, and after much heart 
sifting they get a better experience, but an honest analysis 
discovers it to be but an experience of justification. 
Others do not get to the bottom of entire consecration so 
thoroughly as to enable them to make a confident advance 

of faith in claiming this heritage of heart cleansing, and 

49 



50 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

so, though they have in greater or less degree what John 
Wesley called the "serenity of the philosopher," yet they 
do not have a clear, Scripturally attested, knowledge of 
heart-cleansing by the blood. 

2. Others begin their life of holiness on a high tide of 
sense-life. While feeling is not to be ignored, but en- 
joyed in its proper place, and to be expected in every 
genuine experience of salvation, yet the basis of the life 
is "faith on the Son of God." — II Cor. 5: 7. Feeling varies, 
faith is constant. Feeling is enjoyable, but not essential, 
but without faith we cannot get on at all. Even the tes- 
timony of the Spirit to justification or entire sanctifica- 
tion is not feeling. It is the illumination of the mind 
as to a fact. The fact, purity by the blood, and the in- 
abiding of the Holy Ghost produce feeling. Feeling is 
a consequence of conditions, not the condition itself. A 
locomotive standing quietly on the track with steam up 
and all ready to be attached to a train has just as much 
power as when she is thundering over the track at the 
head of an express train at sixty miles an hour. The 
only difference between the standing and the flying en- 
gine is that the latter has the power turned on the wheels. 
So, a Spirit-filled soul may be as truly filled with power 
from on high, while the body is quietly resting on a bed of 



BIBLE SALVATION. 51 

recuperation, as when in the midst of greatest activities 
in the work of Christ. 

Again, we are satisfied that repeated cases demonstrate 
that many fail of stability in holiness because of failure 
freely, frankly and steadily to confess Jesus in all His 
offices. All the reasons for confession of Jesus at the 
earlier stages of the Christian life hold good as we ad- 
vance to the higher stages of the same life. "Had we not 
better live our religion than say so much about it" has 
caught many a soul. The fallacy of this advice lies in the 
fact that the hidden springs of victory brought into "the 
soul that on Jesus relies" cannot be shown by any act 
or series of acts we can live before our friends or enemies. 
These springs can be known to the world only by the 
testimony of your tongue. Whatever our philosophy, ex- 
perience shows first that it is instinctive and spontaneous 
for a soul to tell the glad story of full salvation, and, 
secondly, experience demonstrates that they who with- 
hold the testimony, almost if not always, "soon have 
nothing about which to tell of the fullness of love." 

Lastly, many fail of stability for want of activity. The 
life of holiness is an intensively active life. The Spirit 
which moved in creation, and every dispensation since, 
is a mighty energy and ceaseless moving power. We can- 



52 THE COMMON SENSE 0# 

not retain his fellowship without a life of activity in the 
field where he is working. The seraphim of Isaiah's 
vision, with six winged furnishing, and voices never 
ceasing, cried "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts, the 
whole earth is full of His glory/' All along the line of 
Christ's greatest desire for laborers in the mission and 
slums, in the ministry and evangelistic field, in foreign 
field and home-place of quiet but constant endeavor, the 
hosts of holiness are pressing to the front with a zeal as 
quenchless as the fires of love, and a persistent purpose 
to glorify Him in constant activity. 



XII. 

SCAKE-CROWS. 

However it should have come to pass that a life of 
holiness should have come to be looked upon and talked 
of as a sort of sidetrack, or, at least, unusual thing, we 
may not fully say, but so it is. How common to hear the 
remark, "Those holiness folks," as though all Chris* 
tians were not fully committed to holiness as a doctrine 
and as a life. It is the chief theme of the Bible. It is 
more frequently commanded, prayed for, set forth, sung 
about, and every way presented than any other subject 
of the Bible. Still, how many at its first mention show 
signs of alarm. It is said, "It divides the church." That 
may be in its favor or against it, dependent upon how it 
"divides the church." The prayer-meeting and class- 
meeting divide the church — the really spiritual, prayer- 
loving and Christian communion-loving from the un- 
spiritual and cold-hearted professor. Yet, we do not con- 
demn the prayer- and class-meetings for that. "Yes," 
says the objector, "I mean it makes them schismatic and 
intractable." Well, schismatic people, whose schism is that 

they will not mix the church and the world, will coa- 

53 



54 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

stantly appreciate spiritual rather than perfunctory ser- 
vices, and decide questions of church-engagement rather 
from a spiritual than a policy side; such so-called schism 
is to be commended rather than condemned. But 
while some may become schismatics in a bad sense who 
march in the holiness ranks, yet we must insist that other 
some, and they the great body of confessors of holiness, 
are the highest conservators of a genuine spiritual unity 
in the church. They are on hand at prayer-meeting and 
class. They stand by and uphold the preacher, and are his 
real spiritual bodyguard. Looking over the whole history 
of the church militant, we must declare that, as a body, 
on the whole, this cry is not true. It is a scare-crow. 

"If we hold up so high a standard we shall discourage 
sinners." When you examine this objection carefully it is 
difficult to find the particular sinner who has been thus 
disheartened. But if some have, we are persuaded we can 
find an equal number who declare "That is just the Gospel 
I want," and "That is religion straight," and like ex- 
pressions, which show the Gospel of full salvation "com- 
mends itself to every man's conscience in the sight of 
God." 

"But it will discourage young converts." Not if what 
they have agrees with them. It would as likely discourage 



BIBLE SALVATION. 55 

a healthy, growing, school-boy who had had a good break- 
fast, and then running to school, had studied hard, played 
hard, and ran all the way home, to tell him there w T as a 
bigger dinner awaiting him than the breakfast he dis- 
posed of four and a half hours since. No, the religion of 
Jesus agrees with itself, and he who enjoys what he has 
will not object to more. This, too, is a scarce-crow. 

"But a high profession endangers the cause, if any 
do not come up to the standard." Well, a Christian can- 
not avoid a high profession. We all made a high profes- 
sion when we were baptized, at the beginning of our 
Christian profession. We then and there declared: "I 
renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and 
glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, 
and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that I will not fol- 
low or be led by them." Also, I declared before the 
church and the world that "I would endeavor, God being 
my helper, to obediently keep God's holy will and com- 
mandments, and walk in the same all the days of my life." 

So that we are in for a "high profession" if w T e have the 
Christian profession at all. There is no low Christian pro- 
fession. Again, this objection seems to emphasize our part 
only, and leave God out of the count. We cannot stand by 
our unaided effort, but "God is able to keep that which we 



56 THE COMMON » SENSE OF 

commit to Him unto that day." The effort to avoid re- 
sponsibility by not making a high profession will not work. 
God sets the standard and will hold us to it whether we 
openly agree to obey or not. He does not ask us to 
sign the ten commandments before He will hold us re- 
sponsible under them. This, also, is a scarce-crow. 



XIII. 
VEEDICT. 

The common-sense jury bring in this decision: We, the 
jury in the case of full salvation by two epochal experi- 
ences now obtained by consecration and faith in the atone- 
ment of Jesus Christ vs. general doubt and positive denial, 
decide in favor of the plaintiff under the following counts, 
to wit: 

1. The evidence shows, with no rebutting testimony, 
that such full salvation is the ought-to-be of a complete 
system. Men ought to be saved from all sin. 

2. The evidence goes to show, with no positive testimony 
to the contrary, but a great mass of testimony for said 
position, that there is such a state as entire sanctification, 
consisting of deliverance from the inbeing of the carnal 
mind, and the inabiding of the fullness of the Holy Spirit 
as the permanent occupant of the cleansed soul. 

3. While a few testified that they "verily believed" that 
such a state was introduced by regeneration, and then per- 
fected by slow stages of growth; and others testified they 
"verily believed" such a state could not be obtained until 

at or near death; yet each of these verily believing 

57 



58 THE COMMON SENSE OP 

theorists could adduce no clear testimony of those who 
know they reached this blessed rest of faith by these 
routes. On the other hand, a "great cloud of witnesses" 
testified they had reached, lived in, and enjoyed this 
Beulah-land-life for a number of years. Hence, this count 
was given to the side of the plaintiff. 

4. The testimony goes to show that as clearly as men 
may know their sins forgiven, through faith in the aton- 
ing merit of Jesus' sacrifice, just so clearly may they know 
they have been delivered from the carnal mind, filled with 
the Holy Ghost and walk therein "before the Lord all the 
days of their lives." 

5. The jury find that the testimony for the plaintiff is 
by such witnesses, as to their general character for truth 
and veracity, that had it been given by the same parties, 
in any court of justice, in a case of charged murder against 
the alleged criminal, the arrested party would have been 
surely hanged. On the other hand, the defence relied 
upon certain "metaphysical/' and it was claimed "logical 
conclusions," upon which there was no general agreement, 
and which, to the jury, could not be seriously entertained 
in the face of the harmonious and united testimony of 
the evidence for the plantiff. 

6. Though strong and persistent effort was put forth 



BIBLE SALVATION. 59 

by attorneys for the defence to break the chain of testi- 
mony, and bring discredit -upon the witnesses, yet did their 
asservations stand the most taxing cross-examination, and 
we were the more convinced at every stage of the progress 
of the case of the sincerity of the witnesses, and the truth- 
fulness of their assertions. Moreover, it was apparent to 
the jury that the witnesses had nothing to gain, so far as 
wordly emolument or popularity was concerned, by the 
testimony they gave, but, on the contrary, they, by their 
testimony, continually exposed themselves to a running 
fire of epithets, such as "cranks," "fanatics," etc., which 
to the natural man was anything but pleasant to endure. 
Yet they gave their testimony with faces that gleamed 
with the fire of love for truth and the cause of Him whom 
they served, which affected even many bystanders so that 
they declared "these men to be the servants of the most 
high God." 

Lastly, we, the jury in above cause, find that by the plain 
and simple and unequivocal teaching and mandate of the 
Bible commanding us to "be holy" — by the commenda- 
tion of this truth to every man's conscience in the sight 
of God — by the testing of a large company of men and 
women embracing all classes of intellect and social posi- 
tion in society from reformers, apostles, bishops, preach- 



60 THE COMMON SfcNSE 0$ 

ers, teachers, professors in colleges and universities to men 
and women in the commonest walks of life, from lords and 
ladies, wealthy and poor people, all agreeing through a 
series of centuries that there is such a life, and they en- 
joyed it, of freedom from the carnal mind, by entire con- 
secration and faith in the blood of Jesus. Hence, we 
unanimously agree in this, our verdict, for the plantiff in 
this cause. 



XIV. 
MY SEAL. 

"He that hath received his testimony hath set to his 
seal that God is true/'— John 3: 33. 

I was of Quaker parentage and had a mother of devout 
piety and eminent conscientiousness. She early taught 
me to pray, and so led me into the knowledge of God, so 
that at an early period, I think by the time I was five 
years of age, I had a clear sense of the favor of God and of 
fellowship with Him in prayer, which I very much en- 
joyed at many periods. I also felt I should preach the 
gospel, and at this early age had many very serious medita- 
tions thereon as my life work. In early manhood I left 
home, and in new associations and besetments I ceased reg- 
ular prayers and gradually declined from my early religious 
position. After marriage, having become very wild and 
worldly in spirit, at twenty-four years of age, wife and I 
were both converted at a Methodist meeting. At once 
my early conviction that I should preach came back with 
renewed force. In fact, this was one of the things I had 
to settle in submitting to God in order to find peace with 

Him. 'Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood," 

61 



'62 THE COMMON SENSE OE 



\ 



save to tell my wife of my conviction, and she did not 
then, nor for thirty-seven years since, has she ever thrown 
a single obstacle, great or small, in my way in this min- 
istry. The church gave outlet to the call and set me at 
work at once, as a happy young Christian, telling "what 
a dear Saviour I had found/' verbally licensed by the 
church before my probationary period expired. Less than 
three months from my conversion I attended my first 
Quarterly Meeting in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and 
the Presiding Elder preached on "Perfect Love." I grew 
very hungry before the sermon was over. I retired from 
the place of meeting with great heart-searching and desire. 
I was not under condemnation as before my conversion. 
I could look up and pray with a consciousness of heart 
grip and sense of the divine presence and recognition I 
did not have at the threshold. But such was my sense of 
need, of want of inner likeness to God, of fetters on my 
spiritual life, that for three days and nights I could sleep 
but little. My struggle culminated on Sunday morning 
as I was going out to preach as a happy, young, verbally- 
licensed preacher. I had been on the stretch all night. I 
had been praying "Lord take met, take me, and perfect me 
in love." All at once it seemed like a sweet voice said 
"Why not step over and say, Lord keep me." At once I 



BIBLE SALVATION. 63 

did change my prayer, and began to exercise faith in God's 
disposition to sanctify me wholly then, and light streamed 
in on my soul. I went on my way rejoicing and preached 
on perfect love with great freedom and joy. I entered 
the Conference — Des Moines — and for several years this 
was the central theme of my ministry. But with increas- 
ing responsibilities, position, and surroundings, and 
specially the influence of some of my older brethren in the 
ministry I began to tone down. I preached less upon per- 
fect love, and ceased to testify definitely to what God had 
wrought in my heart, and I went into an eclipse of my 
faith, and had years of wilderness life. I will not say these 
were entirely barren years; as a minister I was always 
hardworking and God gave gracious results. Eevivals, 
churches and parsonages built, and all that goes to make 
up the visible results of a hardworking, diligent ministry 
was mine. Eight years of hard work in the Presiding 
Eldership helped to fill up these years. Nor were they 
years of heart-barrenness altogether. Many gracious re- 
vivals, many periods when my heart was flooded with grace 
— sometimes very near when I had been in heart-walk 
with God, but then, alas, periods when my soul was barren 
and heedless of its real state with God. 

I became absorbed in visible results, which so many 



64 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

called "success." Positions of increasing influence and 
responsibility were opened to me. Twice I was sent to 
the chief council of the Church as a delegate to General 
Conference. I returned to my pastoral charge from the 
last of them, the General Conference of 1884, sick at 
heart of mere place and position in the ministry. I longed 
for the old heart-life of my early ministry. All else 
seemed so hollow and tasteless without this. I began 
searching my heart. I would go to my study, open my 
Bible, and getting on my knees read and plead with God to 
"restore unto me the joy of His salvation and uphold me 
by His free spirit." Looking back now I can see that the 
blessed Holy Spirit had been preparing, both my wife and 
me, for this great epoch in our soul-life, for two years im- 
mediately previous to this time. He had set our experi- 
ences of justification into the clearest and happiest light 
we had enjoyed for years. He had blessed our labors with 
the salvation of souls and a very marked advance in the 
spirituality of our ministry. But, as I said above, I was 
very hungry for the restoration of the early freedom and 
joyous inward consciousness of full salvation that stood 
up in the memory of the first years of my life as a precious 
picture, now, alas, not a satisfying reality. 

For a period, I judge, of six weeks I did nothing, save 



BIBLE SALVATION. 65 

attend to the necessary work of my ministry, but go to my 
study every morning and spend the day, and sometimes a 
good share of the night, in digging for the bottom of my 
heart-relation to God. Oh, the heart-searchings the Holy 
Spirit led me into. It seemed to me I had never realized 
such mammoth caves and subterranean passages in my 
nature as I did during that period of God searching in my 
heart-life. ISTot of the same kind as the struggle of convic- 
tion of sin I had undergone previous to my conversion. 
Yet the agony of desire of deep heart-hunger, of crying 
out after the living God, I had never had before. My first 
experience of hunger preceding my sanctification in the 
beginning of my ministry had been deep and earnest, but 
that whole experience seemed now, as I recalled it, to have 
been so easy, a going over the short route by Kadesh 
Barnea on the easy level of the normal approach to 
Canaan. But now I had been making so many circuits in 
the wilderness that I was, indeed, "entangled in that desert 
land," and scarce knew how to take reckoning and make 
any headway. But after weary marches and untellable 
heart searchings and humiliations, one memorable Satur- 
day evening I struck bed rock, and I knew, and I knew 
God knew, I was at the bottom and all emptied out for 
God possession. I did not have immediate jubilee as in my 



66 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

first experience in entering Canaan. I felt as though 1 
was attending a funeral. Deep, solemn, graveyard quiet 
came in, and I said, "It is done. I am all the Lord's. He 
and I know it." Looking back to the old experience I did 
not think I was at the end yet. But my now honest and 
earnest soul said, What shall I now do? The answer of my 
Bible and of my common sense was, "Believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ." Well, what do I mean by "Believing on 
the Lord Jesus Christ?" Why, I mean that I will rise 
from this place of battle, and going out from this study, 
I will from this time forth do everything upon the basis 
of God's sure word: "If we walk in the light as He is in 
the light we have fellowship one with another, and the 
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 
I immediately grasped this portion of truth, and began 
to make it the working basis of my life, moment by 
moment. For one week it seemed the adversary of my 
soul contested every step of my life. His chilly breath 
would seem to penetrate my very soul with the insinua- 
tion "You are not sanctified." But I w r as down to one 
thing. I had fought myself out on every other line. So 
I said at every point, place, and period of the day and 
waking hours of the night "The blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son cleanseth me from all sin." I will, I do believe 



K ¥» 



BIBLE SALVATION. 67 

it, and I will and do believe nothing else. Before the 
week was ended, though it had been a week of conflict 
sore and dire assault on my soul, yet I began to rejoice 
that I was still persistent, and had not lost, if I had not 
gained, any ground of spiritual advance. On the second 
Sunday after the Saturday evening's settlement, having 
three times preached to my people of the full gospel, and 
told them at the close "I was wholly the Lord's," and the 
"blood of Jesus cleansed me from all sin," I had ceased 
to look for any break or inundation of soul, feeling I had 
fooled away my former experience, and being so com- 
pletely whipped out as to have nothing to ask, I went into 
class after morning sermon. The old class leader broke 
down in opening the meeting. His wife rose to testify, 
and God sanctified her as quick as flashing light. Several 
others were blessed, and some got under such conviction 
as to run out. I sat there a seeming spectator, almost in- 
different to what was transpiring, when all at once my 
heart was broken up and a conflict of emotions like Paul's 
shipwrecking experience at Melita, "two ways met" in my 
heart: joy and tears, and I laughed and cried at once, 
scarcely able to tell which emotion was uppermost. For 
weeks this tide of emotion, tears and laughter, ebbed and 
flowed in my soul. I had emotion to spare. Enough for 



68 THE COMMON SENSE OF 

a whole family. What a luxury of tears! I never knew 
it was so delightful to cry. I had had a long dry spell, and 
my soul drank in the shower as a "dry and thirsty land/' 
Then, how blessed to laugh! Well, if you have been there 
you know how it is; and if you have not, words will not 
convey it to your soul. 

Gradually the emotion settled down into a steady sub- 
stratum of life. Now on my fifteenth year in this blessed 
life I look back. Have I always been true and had no break 
whatever? No, I will not say that. But I will say there has 
been a steadiness of victory, a constancy of the availability 
of faith in the all cleansing blood, a persistence of keeping 
power preserving me in the knowledge and love of God, 
so much more satisfactory and blessed than before this 
period that it has seemed to me again and again I should 
deliberately choose rather to die than go back for a day, 
or a week, to the old state of soul-attitude to Jesus, my 
Saviour. 

I believe I can say to the glory of my gracious Saviour, 
He has so kept me that for no whole day during the fifteen 
years have I been unconscious of His fully saving me from 
all sin. These have not been years of easy-going outer 
life. My soul, as to its moorings in Jesus, has undergone 
trials these years, compared with which the testings of all 



BIBLE SALVATION. 69 

former years seem but skirmishes, while there have been 
Gettysburgs and Pittsburg Landing battles. But grace 
has been sufficient. In all these, and through them all, the 
conviction has grown, "I am persuaded He is able to keep 
that Fve committed unto Him until that day." 

How clear He has made my spiritual skies! The veri- 
ties of spiritual entities stand out with a distinctness of 
outline that is like the portrait of a vast mountain against 
the clear, blue, cloudless sky beyond. How he has stood 
by me in trial and testing hours. So true and steadfast 
that it seems to me now there is no soul in the universe 
I know so well and who knows me so well as Jesus my 
Saviour. I gladly set my seal to the truth: "He is able 
to save them to the uttermost who come unto God by 
Him." Amen! 



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